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Any first-time visitor to Accra is bound to notice some children and their mothers on the streets begging for alms at major intersections and traffic lights. If one is able to look hard enough, one may spot a few men, sitting under shady trees, chatting and watching the children. Malisa is one such children. She was born in Niger 12 years ago but her parents migrated to Ghana when she was eight. Ghana has had a long history of immigrants from other African countries, especially those from the Sahel region. It is very common to find women and very beautiful schoolage children, mostly fair in complexion, within the Accra Metropolis. Interactions with these children and their parents reveal they are mostly from Niger, a member state of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The main reason given by these families for migrating to Ghana is economic. They have come to seek better living conditions because of the harsh climatic conditions in their home country and to benefit from the proverbial Ghanaian hospitality. As is sometimes the case with migrants, some of these parents are in the country with their schoolage children. These children are, however, not in school. Malisa is in Ghana with her parents and brother. Her day starts early in the morning when the family moves to their favourite spot, the Holy Spirit Cathedral intersection. She hangs around the walk ways and follows pedestrians to ask for alms. She even goes further to use the skills she has developed to cling on to pedestrians and will only loosen her grip when she receives a token. When traffic is heavy, she moves to the traffic lights to target drivers and passengers. At the end of the day the family retire to their lodge in Nima to wait for another day. United Nations Charter While the United Nations Charter on Human Rights guarantees the right to a full cycle of primary education for every child irrespective of geographical location, race or gender, Malisa may never enjoy this right if nothing is done about her situation. Education is regarded both as a vehicle for and an indicator of development, which necessitates that the international community keeps track of literacy levels at the various tiers of education for both males and females. Since the World Declaration on Education For All ( EFA) in 1990, global efforts have been geared towards supporting countries with low primary school enrolment to increase their enrolment and retention levels, especially for marginalised and vulnerable children. However, unlike the Ghanaian child, who is protected by the country�s 1992 Constitution, Malisa is the daughter of immigrant parents, who have no locus. The ECOWAS protocol allows citizens from member countries a 90 day stay in any member state. If after this one intends to stay further, then the immigrant has to regularise his/her stay in the destination country. This notwithstanding, an interesting phenomenon with the migrants is their perception of being temporarily resident in Ghana, although some have been here long enough to have taken advantage of the country�s education system to provide their children with education. Malisa�s parents have lived in Ghana for four years and if she had been enrolled in school, she would have had the benefit of four years of primary education. Other families have lived here for over 10 years. The issue to be addressed, therefore, is how can Ghanaian authorities ensure that these children benefit from the EFA agenda and not be counted as �missing�? Although very visible on the streets, has anyone noticed the fact that Malisa and her peers have little or no access to schooling? Interviews with some parents reveal they have no intention of sending these children to school because they could go back to their home country at any time. Hassan puts this vividly, �We can go back soon. It can be today, or tomorrow or next month. I will not spend my little money to put her in school.� While this stance represents that of most parents interviewed, the children, on the other hand, very much want to be in school. Malisa will want to become a medical doctor because she admires female doctors in the hospital. Unfortunately, she has not been enrolled in school since her family relocated to Ghana. Who will protect her dream, seeing that her family do not even have a place they can call home? ECOWAS member states It is about time ECOWAS member states expanded the protocol to recognise one another�s citizens who have been in the host country for a given length of time and in this context guarantee immigrant children�s rights to education. Parents of the children interviewed claimed they could not afford �school fees�, which shows they are not aware that public basic education is fee free in Ghana. For as long as these immigrants stay in Ghana, trying to irk out a living, there should be a way of sensitising their parents and ensuring their children benefit from the country�s EFA agenda. Global efforts at universal completion of primary education by 2015 is just two years away. This notwithstanding, the United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Education (UNESCO) Education for All Global Monitoring report 2010 estimates that some 56 million children will be left out of school in 2015, with the majority of these children found in developing countries, especially sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), where the numbers of out-of-school children are coming down too slowly and too unevenly to achieve the 2015 target. Several country-specific vulnerable groups like children in deprived areas, minority groups, orphans, and girls have been identified and interventions designed to address the barriers inhibiting their access to education. Cases of immigrant children The cases of these immigrant children need to be considered and addressed to reduce the numbers of out-of-school children and make achievement of the EFA target a reality. For Malisa to achieve her dream she needs to be educated and since education is equated with schooling, she needs to be in school and not on the streets begging for alms. Alternatively, from a postcolonialist perspective, Malisa is being socialised into the culture of her people and like many minority groups that prefer to protect their unique identities, is it not about time global efforts and interventions take into consideration these identity differences and make provision for groups to define their own goals and aspirations to avoid the hegemony of forcing everyone into striving desperately to �fall in line� or be considered �missing�? Whilst we race towards 2015, this is the time for national programmes to redefine spaces needed by minorities to develop their own goals. Can we have alternative models of education that meet the needs of a people?